Minister of Foreign Affairs (New Zealand)

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, also known as the Foreign Minister, is a senior minister in the New Zealand Government heading the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and responsible for relations with foreign countries.

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Coat of Arms of New Zealand
Flag of New Zealand
Incumbent Winston Peters since 27 November 2023
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Style	The Honourable
Member of	Cabinet of New Zealand Executive Council
Reports to	Prime Minister of New Zealand
Appointer	Governor-General of New Zealand
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure
Inaugural holder	James Allen
Formation	24 November 1919
Salary	$288,900[1]
Website	www.beehive.govt.nz

The current Minister of Foreign Affairs is Winston Peters.^[2]

Responsibilities and powers

The Minister of Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing New Zealand's relations with foreign countries and the promotion of New Zealand's interests abroad.^[3] The Minister is in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including New Zealand's diplomatic staff. The office is often considered to be one of the more distinguished ministerial posts, and has at times been counted as the most senior role below that of the Prime Minister. In terms of actual political power, however, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is not as prominent as in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, with the Minister of Finance being considerably more influential.

Historically, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been a member of Cabinet, with the exception of the Rt Hon. Winston Peters between 2005 and 2008. This situation came about as the result of coalition negotiations in which it was agreed that New Zealand First would take a senior ministerial portfolio but would not join Cabinet.

History

The first New Zealand foreign minister was James Allen, appointed to the post of "Minister of External Affairs" by William Massey in 1919. Before this time, there was no dedicated ministerial portfolio for foreign relations. A Department of External Affairs was created in 1919 but its functions were limited to administering New Zealand's Island Territories in the Pacific; namely the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, and the League of Nations Mandate of Samoa.^[4] In 1943, a new Department of External Affairs was created to conduct the country's external relations. The older department was then renamed the Department of Island Territories and a separate portfolio called the Minister of Island Territories was subsequently created.^[5]

From 1943, the Minister of External Affairs became the main ministerial portfolio for conducting New Zealand's external relations.^[6] Like its similarly named Australian and Canadian counterparts, the portfolio was called "External Affairs" rather than "Foreign Affairs" in deference of the British Government's responsibility for conducting foreign policy on behalf of the British Empire and later the Commonwealth of Nations.^[7] The title was changed to "Minister of Foreign Affairs" in 1970 after the Department was renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The title became "Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade" following the abandonment of the short-lived "Minister of External Relations and Trade" title, created in September 1988 when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs absorbed the Trade functions of the old Department of Trade and Industry. In 2005 responsibility for trade was split into a separate portfolio, with the title reverting to "Minister of Foreign Affairs".

Historically it has been common for Prime Ministers to take on the role of Foreign Minister themselves, particularly if they have an interest in the field. Several New Zealand Prime Ministers including Peter Fraser, Walter Nash, Keith Holyoake, and David Lange held the External Affairs portfolio.^[6] The most recent Prime Minister to do this is Helen Clark in 2008 as Acting Minister, and prior to her was Mike Moore, in 1990. Thirteen Prime Ministers have served as Foreign Minister for all or part of their terms.

New Zealand has had 28 foreign ministers (regardless of exact title). The longest-serving was Keith Holyoake, who held the post for the duration of his 11-year premiership. The second longest-serving, and the longest-serving who was not also Prime Minister, was Don McKinnon, who later became Commonwealth Secretary-General.

List of ministers of foreign affairs

Key

  Reform   United   Labour   National   NZ First

No.		Name	Portrait	Term of office		Prime Minister
	1	James Allen		24 November 1919	28 April 1920		Massey
	2	Ernest Lee		17 May 1920	13 January 1923
	3	Francis Bell		7 June 1923	18 January 1926
							Bell
							Coates
	4	William Nosworthy		24 May 1926	24 August 1928
	5	Gordon Coates		25 August 1928	10 December 1928
	6	Joseph Ward		10 December 1928	28 May 1930		Ward
	7	George Forbes		28 May 1930	6 December 1935		Forbes
	8	Michael Joseph Savage		6 December 1935	27 March 1940†		Savage
	9	Frank Langstone		1 April 1940	21 December 1942		Fraser
	10	Peter Fraser		7 July 1943	13 December 1949
	11	Frederick Doidge		13 December 1949	19 September 1951		Holland
	12	Clifton Webb		19 September 1951	26 November 1954
	13	Tom Macdonald		26 November 1954	12 December 1957
							Holyoake
	14	Walter Nash		12 December 1957	12 December 1960		Nash
	15	Keith Holyoake		12 December 1960	8 December 1972		Holyoake
							Marshall
	16	Norman Kirk		8 December 1972	31 August 1974		Kirk
	17	Bill Rowling		6 September 1974	12 December 1975		Rowling
	18	Brian Talboys		12 December 1975	11 December 1981		Muldoon
	19	Warren Cooper		11 December 1981	26 July 1984
	20	David Lange		26 July 1984	24 August 1987		Lange
	21	Russell Marshall		24 August 1987	9 February 1990
							Palmer
	22	Mike Moore		9 February 1990	2 November 1990
							Moore
	23	Don McKinnon		2 November 1990	10 December 1999		Bolger
							Shipley
	24	Phil Goff		10 December 1999	19 October 2005		Clark
	25	Winston Peters		19 October 2005	29 August 2008
		Helen Clark Acting Minister		29 August 2008	19 November 2008
	26	Murray McCully		19 November 2008	2 May 2017		Key
							English
	27	Gerry Brownlee		2 May 2017	26 October 2017
	(25)	Winston Peters		26 October 2017	6 November 2020		Ardern
	28	Nanaia Mahuta		6 November 2020	11 November 2023
							Hipkins
	29	Grant Robertson		11 November 2023	27 November 2023
	(25)	Winston Peters		27 November 2023	present		Luxon

References

1. "Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 2016 (2016/252)" (PDF). www.parliament.nz.
2. "Caretaker govt arrangements extended amid coalition talks". 1 News. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
3. "Ministerial Portfolio: Foreign Affairs". The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
4. "External Affairs Bill", in New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 185 (3 October–5 November 1919), p.337.
5. Malcolm Templeton, An Eye, an Ear, and a Voice: 50 years in New Zealand's External Relations, 1943–1993, p.1.
6. Malcolm Templeton, ed., An Eye, An Ear, And a Voice, pp.1–2.
7. Alan Watt, "The Department of Foreign Affairs," in The Times Survey of Foreign Ministries of the World,Department of External Affairs (1921–70) ed. Zara Steiner (London: Times Books Limited, 1982), p.35; James Eary, "The Department of External Affairs," in The Times Survey of Foreign Ministries of the World, p.96.

External links

• New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade